Your Right to Know

View SlideshowRequest to buy this photoBrooke LaValley | DispatchFormer trustee Dave Eby addresses the need for a fire levy during a public-comment period at the Orange Township Office in Lewis Center.

LEWIS CENTER, Ohio — Orange Township is taking its fight to put a new fire levy on the February
ballot to the Ohio Supreme Court.

The township’s trustees voted unanimously yesterday to ask the court to order the Delaware
County Board of Elections to place the levy on the ballot. The board said on Thursday that it would
not allow the levy because the township filed its request two minutes late.

About 50 firefighters from Columbus, Orange Township and other Delaware County townships
attended the trustees’ meeting, applauding when the trustees voted to appeal the matter. Jack
Reall, the president of International Association of Fire Fighters Local 67, had urged firefighters
from other departments to attend to show their support.

Jennifer Springer, an assistant Knox County prosecutor who is representing the township in the
case, said the Supreme Court probably will rule on the request in a couple of weeks. Springer said
her argument would center on the township’s right to submit ballot measures electronically.

The township is seeking a new fire levy because another, higher-tax levy failed at the polls on
Nov. 6.

The township emailed its request to the county board of elections in two separate emails, at
3:52 and 3:53 p.m. on Nov. 7, and hand-delivered an incomplete request at 4:02 p.m. that day. The
hard copy was missing a township resolution that was required to get an issue on the ballot, said
Karla Herron, the director